Noah Wasshttp://www.noahwass.com
Noah Wass | Gear reviews and other useful informationTue, 20 Jan 2015 05:09:09 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.18OxyLED Solar Pathway Light Reviewhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MemeHumor/~3/oCmZI2MI_9Y/
http://www.noahwass.com/2014/12/oxyled-solar-pathway-light-review/#commentsTue, 30 Dec 2014 21:44:07 +0000http://www.noahwass.com/?p=302Any homeowner knows that a lighted walkway is better than one that is unlit. Finding a good looking, functional light to place near a path of yours is not always an easy task. You can head to your nearest home repair store and browse their offerings and hope that the lights that they sell are good enough to hold a charge into the first part of the night or if they stand straight up past the first few months of installation. A lot of this comes down to the user (you) and what your preferences are and how you install it.

Right now, I’m going to give you a detailed look into the OxyLED Solar Pathway Light (TSP-02 Solar Motion Sensor). I always do an unboxing description with photos. This gives a better impression of the overall quality of the product as well as sets an expectation as to what you are going to receive if you purchase this product for yourself. The packaging for this pathway light was fairly nondescript. It came in a plain, white box with a basic sticker on the top left-hand corner that gave the company name, the product name and it’s country of manufacture.

The exterior of the package.

Upon opening the box, you can see that the light is fairly well nestled into some more cardboard to help protect it during shipping. Nothing fancy here, but this is a pathway light, so I don’t think anything fancy on the inside is needed. I would have liked to see something on the exterior of the box showing an image of the product so that you know what is inside. A step above would have been including some marketing descriptions on the image, too. This would be a good opportunity to highlight some of the lights features.

The package contains the light, a basic guide with multiple mounting instructions, a wall mount and adhesive for a more permanent mounting method. As you can see in the last two images, there is a recess in the back with a switch labeled ‘Auto’ and ‘Off’. This is a one-time use switch. You’re supposed to set it to ‘Off’ when you first receive the light and leave the light in direct sunlight for the first four days to ensure proper charging and function of the battery/light. Once you’ve completed this step, you can set the switch to ‘Auto’ and not deal with it again.

I have to say that I really like the design of this light. It’s got a nice look to it, overall, and would look good at most homes. The brushed metal look on the front face paired with the angles and light placement make this unit seem like it was designed to fit in with the taste and preference of a lot of potential customers.

At first glance, I’m not impressed with the mounting options, however. One single mount point for a screw seems inadequate. Not that this light is heavy, but the unit will be exposed to foot traffic by humans and animals and wind being outside on a pathway. If you happen to get snow in the winter, you’re most likely going to be using a shovel near it and could knock it off. I would have preferred to see a stamped metal plate that could have been permanently fixed to the mounting surface. This plate could then have been used to slide the main light unit onto. Some clips could have held it permanently in place. I’m sure there are other potential options, but the options included with the light seem to be afterthoughts.

As always, I’m going to use this light for a couple of weeks and will post an update with my impressions from real world use, then.

]]>http://www.noahwass.com/2014/12/oxyled-solar-pathway-light-review/feed/0http://www.noahwass.com/2014/12/oxyled-solar-pathway-light-review/OxyLED MD50 Flashlight Reviewhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MemeHumor/~3/3yFXJb9eweU/
http://www.noahwass.com/2014/12/oxyled-md50-flashlight-review/#commentsWed, 17 Dec 2014 05:29:55 +0000http://www.noahwass.com/?p=258I really like flashlights. Luckily for me there are a lot of options out there. I’ve used a lot of flashlights and, while I like some of them, others I don’t. A good flashlight should, ultimately, fit your needs. This will vary from person to person as well as in different situations. I don’t need a top of the line flashlight to look at a leak under my kitchen sink. When I’m out camping, though, I want something a lot stronger and more reliable.

The OxyLED MD50 is a flashlight (torch for you, Brits!) that seems to fit the bill for something a bit more demanding, at first glance. Its design is a machined aluminum body, anodized black. It has a wrist strap that is intended for active use to make sure that the light stays with you while you’re moving and potentially drop it. It puts out 500 lumens with a CREE LED. It even comes with a one-year warranty seemingly anticipating that you are going to use this light in rough environments.

My first impression was with the box. It’s the first thing that you open when you get a product, of course. The box is fine, ultimately. It felt a bit cheap, however. The front clasps were difficult to get my fingers under to open and there just wasn’t a lot of stiffness or structure to the box. I only bring up the feel of the box because I feel that it should somewhat resemble the product inside. The flashlight feels much sturdier compared to other flashlights and I’ve felt boxes that were sturdier than this one. I just feel that the two should compliment each other.

The foam on the inside of the box was cut out around all of the accessories. This was a nice touch and I felt that the presentation of materials, product, and accessories inside the box was fine. You get the flashlight, a carrying cage for 3 AAA batteries, a rechargeable battery, a battery charger and electrical outlet adapter as well as the various warranty and product cards.

I took the flashlight out and began inspecting it. The construction of the body seemed to be fairly solid. You can get a little bit of play/wiggle of the body where the head telescopes up the body, but this is perfectly acceptable and expected. It’s tough to design something that slides smoothly without wiggling. The standard black anodized finish looks good for this flashlight, too. I wasn’t sure about the bright green button on the back side of the light. This seemed like a fairly bold color to put on a flashlight, but it’s wearing on me. Typically, these rear buttons are black or clear. Not a big deal, but for a discerning customer, it could be something that would throw them off.

I’ll include more detailed notes in the next couple of weeks as I use the flashlight more to give you a better idea of what you can expect from this particular light.

**[UPDATE]**

Well, I’ve been using this flashlight off and on for the last month now and I’ve come to really like it. I’ve used it in my attic looking for a roof leak, at work checking water levels in tanks, on night walks to illuminate sidewalks and a lot in between. The most useful that this flashlight has been was up in my attic. The combination of the strap and adjustable focus was perfect for the situation. I was working my way down the line of my roof checking for leaks in between my rafters and the adjustable focus was perfect in this scenario. It allowed me to get a wide angle when I needed to view areas close to me and a tight angle when I needed to see areas further from me. I didn’t have to crawl around a lot in the insulation trying to get a good look at each area.

I have to say that this beam is really bright, too. OxyLED states that the light has a 500 lumen output. I was able to measure 1200 lumens/square meter (lx). This is very bright compared to the old PrincetonTec Attitude I’ve been using.

I’m disappointed that the finish of the flashlight is not better, however. While using the light, you can feel that the edges are a bit rough. Adding a deburring step in the manufacturing process would eliminate this rough feeling and possibly remove the burr around the strap hole. This will eventually cut the strap and you may inadvertently lose your light!

Sharp burr!

The flashlight comes with a rechargeable battery as well as a holder for 3 AAA batteries. I got to looking at the rechargeable battery and it seems that this battery could have been much more significant and still worked in the battery. There is a lot of extra room on the side and seems that the battery could have been designed to fill this space and provide a longer life for the end user.

Extra room around the rechargeable battery.

This is a good flashlight, ultimately, and you can’t beat it for the price. You can find out more information on their Amazon page below.

]]>http://www.noahwass.com/2014/12/oxyled-md50-flashlight-review/feed/0http://www.noahwass.com/2014/12/oxyled-md50-flashlight-review/2004 Toyota Prius Wiper Insert Changehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MemeHumor/~3/8_bpDbYvNxs/
http://www.noahwass.com/2013/12/2004-toyota-prius-wiper-insert-change/#commentsSat, 28 Dec 2013 15:56:18 +0000http://www.noahwass.com/?p=229It’s that time of year and my wiper blades needed to be changed. While I was at my local Toyota dealership getting my oil changed ($60. Not bad.), I asked about getting new wiper blades. The service rep was kind enough to go to the service department to check on the price and informed me that for both the passenger and driver side inserts, I would be charged an additional $58. Yep. For inserts. That’s doubling the price of my oil change for a pair of wiper inserts. Some extruded rubber. I told him thanks, but no thanks and shopped around elsewhere to get a better price.

I ended up buying some PIAA replacement inserts off of Amazon for the decent price of $20. I wasn’t looking for a steal of a deal, but I wasn’t looking to get ripped off either. The inserts came today, and I had some free time this afternoon, so I decided that I would go and replace the blades quickly and then get back to my afternoon. Hah! Little did I know that it is now a requirement to have a Masters in Mechanical Engineering to install wiper blade inserts. I looked around online and couldn’t find any instructions on how to install these little buggers, so I decided to put this tutorial together. You can use this tutorial to change the inserts on any 2004 Toyota Prius or comparable poorly designed wiper system.

Step 1: Remove Wiper Blades from the Wiper Arms
This is the easy part. You just push the little clip down and slide the wiper blade assembly down the arm. Do this for both the passenger and driver side.

Step 2: Remove the end clips.
This is the second to the hardest part. You have to get something small underneath the ends of the metal strips and lift them above the plastic bumps on the end clips. I used a couple of small, flat screwdrivers. Once you have the metal clips lifted above the plastic bumps, push the end clip off. Do this for both ends of each wiper blade.

Step 3: Remove the rubber covers.
Okay, this might be the easiest step. These extruded rubber covers slide off really easy. Remove these from both sides of each wiper blade.

Step 4: Remove the old wiper insert.
Another easy step, here. Just pull the old inserts out from between the two metal bands. Discard or use for whipping your kids into shape. Do this for both wiper blades (and disregard my comment about whipping your kids).

Step 5: Insert new wiper inserts.
This is the hardest part. In my first few tries, I was able to get the new insert about 5 inches onto the metal bands and then there was too much friction to move them forward anymore. After looking at it and thinking for a while, it dawned on me what to do. Dish soap! I smeared liquid dish soap along the metal bands and went back to installing the inserts. This still isn’t an easy thing to do, but the soap made it much easier. The important thing here is to make sure that the bands are in the correct slot on the insert and that the insert doesn’t get twisted or misaligned going through the center portion of the wiper blade assembly. You can make everything perfect once you have the insert centered.

Step 6: Replace the rubber covers.
Again, an easy step. Just make sure that the geometry matches between the rubber cover and the center of the wiper blade. If it doesn’t, you have the rubber cover mounted backwards. It also helps to have the rubber cover mounted in the correct slots on the wiper blade. Do this for each end of both wiper blades.

Step 7: Replace the end caps.
This is actually easy. Much easier than removing them. Just make sure that the geometry matches the rubber covers and that you have the metal bands going into the correct slots. Do this for both ends of each wiper blade.

Step 8: Remount the wiper blades onto the wiper arms.
The last step is easy. Just place the wiper blade back into the crook of the arm and push until it clicks in.

Congratulations. You’re done!

Option 1: A beer of your choice.
Use option 1 at any step in these instructions. I chose to use option 1 (Victoria, in my case) starting at step 5.